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by wrd83 1128 days ago
I think environmentalist have been trying to say this forever.

A lifestyle where everyone is supposed to own a car is not sustainable. Cities need to adjust to such an environment. You can see this slowly happening in Europe.

Furthermore you can check the infrastructure spend in Netherlands over time as they stopped prioritizing the needs for car drivers.

1 comments

> A lifestyle where everyone is supposed to own a car is not sustainable.

Can you elaborate on why that is?

making them takes a lot of resources. keeping them in working condition is not without hassle, most only work for 15-20 years before complete breakdown.

(parking) space in cities is a premium commodity that other humans would like to use instead.

edit:

and then there is that thing with cars adding a weight overhead factor of 10-30x which correlates very tightly to energy use per person/distance

> making them takes a lot of resources. keeping them in working condition is not without hassle, most only work for 15-20 years before complete breakdown.

This can be said about every aspect of our civilisation. Everything you see around you, the houses, gardens, trees, roads, shops etc is there because people are working hard to maintain them. Without it, they would quickly fall into disrepair. I think people should decide for themselves if something, eg a car, is worth their money or not - who am I (or you) to decide?

> (parking) space in cities is a premium commodity that other humans would like to use instead.

The city often already charges money for this. Many houses have underground garages. You can argue that very large cars have no place in a city, but thats a nuanced discussion, not doing away with all cars altogether.

> and then there is that thing with cars adding a weight overhead factor of 10-30x which correlates very tightly to energy use per person/distance

The great thing about civilisation, industry and technology is that we are no longer limited to what our bodies can provide, which is just a few hundred watts. People were worked to exhaustion and death in the fields and then the mines, because we had no other surplus energy other than animals and maybe windmills. You can argue about the costs and downsides of specific energy production methods, but we worked hard to escape the abject monetary and energetic poverty of most of our existence, and I don't see a good reason to go back to those times.

> You can argue that very large cars have no place in a city, but thats a nuanced discussion, not doing away with all cars altogether.

i am telling you that owning a car is not a sustainable option for all of humanity.

you are arguing for "c'mon, just a little bit longer"

ok then I'll guess that settles it